


Castles and Courtships - "The Bachelorette": Camelot

by IrisPurpurea



Category: Merlin (TV), The Bachelorette (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BAMF Gwen (Merlin), Because it's 2019, Because it's not really like The Bachelorette, But it's okay, But that really doesn't suit him, Camelot Edition, Everyone is Bisexual, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gwaine Flirts (Merlin), Gwaine was almost Gavin, Gwen goes on The Bachelorette, It's much better, M/M, Merlin Emrys - Freeform, SO MUCH FLUFF, Slight OOC, Very little drama, lots of fluff, the bachelorette au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2019-11-04 05:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17892074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrisPurpurea/pseuds/IrisPurpurea
Summary: Modern AU. Gwen is The Bachelorette. Merlin and Arthur are among her suitors. Who out of them at the end of ten weeks will manage to find love?





	Castles and Courtships - "The Bachelorette": Camelot

Honestly, sincerely, this all started out as a joke.

***

Guinevere Thomas likes to think of herself as a plain and ordinary person, honest and down-to-earth. She's no model, no pageant queen, no minor celebrity. The closest she ever came to really being on TV was when she was briefly interviewed by a local news outlet to promote her summer music camp in high school, mouth full of braces and oboe in hand and floor-length black nun's dress and all. But that's irrelevant. She's a part-time nurse and a part-time behavioral aide, and now she's here. Standing right in the middle of a sheer fantasy. And she's thinking about high school summer music camp. She brushes the thought away.

There's a literal castle to her back and a magnificent orange sunset splashed across the sky in front of her and the most perfect breeze gently blowing her hair away from her face and wafting the light scent of fresh roses toward her. And she's in a rich red gown at the top of a drive paved with pearly flagstones and somewhere there are six cameras trained on her right now, but she refused point-blank to wear high heels, insisting on sensible flats and her own handmade earrings. There's the soft crunch of rubber over stone in the distance, making her stomach turn.

***

Like many plain and ordinary people, Gwen derived a strange kind of joy from watching reality TV with her friends from work, especially after a long and grueling shift. She went out every Tuesday night with Rose, Freya, Sophia, Vivian, and Mithian to watch The Bachelorette at their local bar and wind down and laugh till their sides hurt. And when the news broke one Tuesday nine months ago that they'd be shaking things up for the upcoming season and, rather than drawing from the group of girls on The Bachelor, looking for someone brand new and entirely unknown, they'd laughed till their sides hurt imagining each other taking on the lead role.

"Gwen, I'm telling you, you'd make a seriously impressive bachelorette." Sophia claps her shoulder, giggling.

"You'd take none of their crap. No mess, no drama. Any man starts any shit, he's kicked straight outta the mansion. God, that'd be so fun to watch!" Freya adds, raising her glass.

Gwen was too focused on the drama unfolding on the screen behind the bar to do more than just laugh them off. God, if she were on the Bachelorette... Mithian was doubled over giggling at this point, and Rose had snorted so hard some of her drink had come out of her nose.

Honestly, sincerely, this all started out as a joke. 

And then Rose, Freya, and Sophia came up to her table during their lunch break three Fridays later, hands clasped behind their backs, looking guilty.

"So... Gwen." Sophia began, rocking back and forth on her feet. "You know the Bachelorette, right?"

"...Right." Gwen put down her sandwich.

"And you know how..." Freya continued, "they were looking for contestants. For the new season. Right?"

"......Right." Gwen raised her eyebrow.

"We..." Rose gestured to Freya and Sophia. "... did something."

"What. Did you do." Gwen's stomach sank.

No one spoke for what felt like minutes.

"They got together Wednesday morning three weeks ago, filled out an application to  _The Bachelorette_ with your name, and sent it in," Mithian called from the next table. 

"You  _what_?" Vivian spluttered.

"Anyways," Freya hurried on, "you've been selected for interviews. I mean you don't have to, of course, but..."

"But  _what?_ " Gwen asked faintly.

"But you would honestly be such a perfect Bachelorette, Gwen," Sophia pleaded. 

"Yeah, loads better than the usual girls," Freya added.

" _Loads_ ," Mithian affirmed, Vivian nodding frantically, seemingly onboard after her initial shock.

"Andtheyneedtoknowintwoweeks," Rose said, grimacing. 

"... Please?" Sophia smiled weakly at her.

Gwen just stared at them, mouth hanging open.

***

"Gwen?" Christian's voice startles her out of her thoughts. Her interviewer smiles warmly at her, and she smiles nervously back. "Can you answer a few questions for the cameras?"

"Uh, sure." Gwen nods, smoothing the front of her dress. Christian waves a camerawoman over. She grins at her, makes some adjustments, and gives them a thumbs-up.

"How are you feeling, Gwen? Your first batch of men is coming up the hill as we speak!"

"I'm nervous, of course," Gwen begins, smoothing her dress again, "but mostly excited to... begin this journey." She grimaces internally at the phrase, remembering all the nights she and her friends used to mock the tall blonde girls who always uttered it. Freya would certainly give her grief. But she couldn't think of anything else to say.

"What are you looking for at the end of this?"

"A steady relationship," Gwen replies firmly. This she's answered so many times she could give the whole speech in her sleep.

"Not an engagement, necessarily?" Christian asks, raising an eyebrow. They've all raised their eyebrows at her by now. "That's quite a large break from tradition."

Gwen takes a deep breath. "I want to find a man who's kind and thoughtful. I want a man who respects me and takes me seriously, and someone I'm able to respect in turn. I want to make a commitment."

She's given this speech in interviews across the country, broadcast nationwide. She's given this speech in commercials, sandwiched between reruns of  _Friends_. That first time seeing her face on TV had been jarring.

"But an engagement at the end of ten weeks is not necessarily a real commitment. I want to make sure I know him, and he knows me, deeply and completely. If I feel like I'm there at the end of ten weeks, I'll propose to him. And yes," she laughs, " _I'll_ propose to  _him_."

She marched into the interviewers' office eight months ago, sat down, and launched into this speech when they asked her the same question. They'd raised their eyebrows at her too. But they must've eventually decided she'd be good for ratings.

"But that could take a lot longer than ten weeks. I don't have to get married right away, and whoever I end up with will understand that." She still doesn't know if they finally went with her because they thought she was right or because they thought they could change her mind.

"Thanks, Gwen!" Christian gives her a thumbs up. "This'll be an interesting season for sure!"

"Now you know this already," the camerawoman begins. Stacy, Gwen thinks, her name is Stacy. "But we have scheduled times for interviews every day. We've set up cameras in the house, and we've placed mics around the house. You'll all be wearing mics most of the time, and it's probably best if you just forget about that bit, but assume they're on at all times. If you ever need to talk to us, come see us in the interview room. We'll be set up in there every day. Sound good?"

Gwen nods, her heart in her throat all of a sudden. There's a limo pulling up the long drive. Stacy raises her eyebrows and retreats into the distance. Christian mouths "good luck" before turning to follow her.

Gwen smooths her dress again as the limo rolls to a stop outside her. The door eases open, a polished black shoe steps out. A leg clad in bright pink dress pants. A breeze blows again, catching her hair. She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath.

And so it begins.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know how I feel about The Bachelorette. My "Bachelorette" is very different from the actual thing. It's more chill, for starters. Gwen has more control over the process, and the producers don't interfere just to stir up drama. I'm going for a very wholesome, almost "GBBO" vibe. It's become more of a dating show in my AU, in that the end goal isn't necessarily to get engaged, it's just to enter a serious relationship.


End file.
